Grandpa's Funeral - July 2011

My Grandpa had been sick for a while, like all winter.  Not eating, no energy, not getting up. He was diagnosed with lung cancer, then they changed that to Tuberculosis. It was all so sad. His cancer diagnosis was a catalyst with me getting help for my depression. Had I not gotten help, I probably would have been a HUGE mess.  My Grandpa was one of my very favoritest people in the whole world.

My sister, Marianne and I visited my Grandpa on July 3rd, and honestly, I thought I would see him again, like I thought he could get treated for the TB.  Maybe, had he not been sick so long... We all had to end up getting tested for TB as well.
 

 

 

I feel like my Grandpa's funeral left a little to be desired.  Like it didn't honor him enough for the good person that he was.  After my mom's funeral I felt like everything that I would have wanted said was said, but my Grandpa's funeral left me a little empty.  That made me kind of sad too.  I think the moment I was most sad at his funeral was when some random person was singing one of my Grandpa's favorite songs (and singing it poorly), and a song he sang often, I was probably rolling my eyes to myself at the bad singing, when my great uncle (his brother) who was in front of, or behind me, started singing it softly.  He had a beautiful voice and sounded a little like my Grandpa, and I was so sad knowing I wouldn't be able to sit by Grandpa and listen to play his guitar and sing.  I just love my Grandpa.

4/22/11-4/23/11

We went to visit my Grandma & Grandpa for the weekend.

My Grandpa was very sick, not eating, not doing much at all. 

 

 

The next day was my Great - Grandmother's 101st birthday.  I had missed her 100th birthday because of Jonah just being born. 

 

Mallary and Trevan had picked dandelions to give Granny Cole.

Mallary was watching Granny Cole who was crying and very emotional because she thought someone was one of her sons who had already passed away. 

This picture still makes me cry.  Since my grandpa had been so sick he hadn't been able to go visit her.  No one had really told her much about him being sick or anything.  When she saw him, she started crying and said, "I didn't think I was going to see you again."  It was just really sweet and showed how much she loves her son in law. 

 

 

It was so hard for me to leave this day.  We were headed home from the party, and I didn't want to leave.  John had already taken the kids to the van and I was lingering.  I hug my Grandpa again and he was crying too.  I don't really remember what was said.  As I walk out the door one of my cousins asked what was wrong, and I hugged her and asked her to take care of my Grandpa.  No one at that point knew how serious he was sick.  I cried myself to sleep in the van on the drive back.  It felt like I had just said good-bye to my Grandpa for the last time.  It was a very similar feeling to the last time I said good-bye to my mom, and that made me even more sad. 

 

Though I saw my Grandpa a few more times before he passed away in July, that trip was the last trip that he was really the Grandpa that I knew and loved.  The other times the drugs he was on made him grouchy and weird.  So, I think of this weekend as the last weekend with my real Grandpa, and just thinking of me leaving him that day makes me so sad.  

 

August 2010 Part II

The next weekend we went to the fair!  Our family tradition.  Here I am with Grandma and Grandpa making a traditional fair meal, fried biscuits and Grandma's eggs!  This year was Grandma and Grandpa's first year at the fair not using a  camper or motor home.  They slept in a tent!  Eighty + year olds sleeping in a tent...  I didn't believe that they would do it, but they did!!  Oh my goodness, the stories they told about Grandma being bounced off the air mattress by Grandpa sitting down on it.  Can you even believe they slept on an air mattress?  In a tent??  Too funny!

See my grandma?  That is me in fifty years... if I live that long...

Helping Grandpa do the biscuits.  He kept talking about how lots of people don't know how to fry them in our family...  "The secret is not getting the oil to hot..."

The chefs

My Great Uncle, Ranny with Mallary and his son Jimmy

Jonah's first year at the fair at four months old (I found out I was pregnant with him the year before at the fair!!)

My Grandpa always holds the babies.  He passed away this past summer, and all these pictures of him healthy are so precious to me.

John and I usually always do one of these at the fair every year, I wish I could find an extra spicy one we've done before... 

That is our cousin Tyler.  This was the first time we have met him.  He kept saying, "If we're cousins, how come we've never met before?"  It was really funny. But, he hung out with us and rode rides with Trevan. 

How cute are they?  We love the fair!

Weekend of June 19, 2010

My Grandparents had not met their newest "great" yet, so we had to go and introduce them.

Jonah basically slept the whole trip until he and Grandma's photo shoot. My Grandma does not smile for pictures for some reason, you can see us try and work a smile out of her in the pictures below, then John basically had to do a song and dance to get those smiles out of her.

Jonah, however, is not impressed with daddy's song and dance...

She was really "tickled!"